La Tribune Occitanie – Montpellier has interviewed Laurens Ehrmann, Founder of The Yard VFX, on the ambitions and strategy of the studio.
Following the announcement of the winners of the « La Grande Fabrique de l’Image » call for project for France 2030, La Tribune Occitanie-Montpellier has interviewed Laurens Ehrmann, founder of The Yard to know more about the strategy of the VFX studio and the opening of a new site in Montpellier, in the South of France.
Indeed, as part of France 2030 national plan, the « Grande Fabrique de l’image » call for projects has selected 68 projects, 11 of which are in Occitanie. Of the eleven winners, eight are in Montpellier or its urban area, including two renowned VFX studios : Mathematic and The Yard. Despite their different approaches, both companies have high ambitions, banking on synergies with the local ecosystem to attract new talent and continue to establish themselves as benchmarks on the international market.
As stated in the article published by the newspaper, Paris-based studio The Yard has set itself the goal of working internationally since its creation in 2009. For nine years, Laurens Ehrmann, founder of the studio, scouted foreign markets, built up a network, built a coherent team and a strategy.
Most of the talent coming out of top schools goes abroad to work on blockbuster productions. The challenge was to retain this talent with prestigious projects. After the health crisis, everything accelerated. We absorbed the influx of requests because we were ready, and in eighteen months we went from 15 to 100 employees.
Today, The Yard works with the biggest studios (Netflix, Amazon, Disney, LucasFilm) on major projects (Indiana Jones 5, The Gray Man, John Wick 4,…) and has won the 2023 César for best visual effects for Jean-Jacques Annaud’s film Notre-Dame brûle.
Rather than continuing to grow in Paris, The Yard has decided to focus on Montpellier to attract new talent. The studio, which plans to recruit around 40 new staff within the next year, is basing its strategy on a partnership signed with ArtFX, a Montpellier-based school specializing in special effects, animation and video games.
From the start of the new academic year, our experienced artists will be giving masterclasses to ArtFX students to accelerate their training and facilitate access to internships. This partnership will strengthen our interaction with ArtFX. We are also considering the development of two training courses: technical director and visual effects producer of tomorrow.
The Yard, ArtFX and Pics Studio (creation of a cinema cluster near Montpellier) are all winners of La Fabrique de l’Image’s call for projects, with synergized applications.
Being able to apply through a complete ecosystem, from the very first steps of image creation, shooting, to post-production, increases the chances of attracting international projects and encourages synergies. Our strategy is to grow serenely, secure the company's foundations and move towards projects that are suited to our studio culture.
Read the original article on La Tribune Occitanie-Montpellier (in French) by clicking here.